The Value of Strength
by Ms.Madeline
Summary: Steve Rogers wakes up in the morning just like any other day, but what he finds waiting for him in the mirror is beyond his belief. The man that was once Captain America is once again the 5'4, 95 lb kid who was too sick to get into the army. If Steve wants to be Captain America again, he'll have to fix it. (Link to book trailer can be found in my profile)
1. Chapter 1

Steve was jolted awake by the loud beeping of the alarm clock that rested on the small table beside his bed. He didn't groan or complain as many people did when they woke up, he smoothly sat up, shut off the alarm then got to his feet. When in the army, Steve had had to wake up not only much earlier but also from a much less comfortable bed and then dive into countless exercises. Waking up at 8:00 in the morning after sleeping in a perfectly clean and warm bed was nothing compared to that, besides he felt he had slept enough during his lifetime.

Though HYDRA had had all of its secrets spilled onto the internet and the government claimed they had taken the rogue organization down, Steve had a feeling it would take more than that to truly end HYDRA. After all, cut off one head, two more will take its place. So, Steve had decided to moved out of his apartment in DC, just in case HYDRA came knocking. He was currently staying in an only slightly decent hotel at the edge of DC.

Since HYDRA's takeover of SHIELD, the regular missions he had been getting after the battle of New York had ceased. SHIELD was still staggering so Steve was out of a job. He had enough money from SHIELD to keep living comfortably for several more months, but Steve wasn't a big fan of sitting around doing nothing. During his newfound free-time, Steve had been going through the file Natasha Romanoff had given him, trying to decide on the best place to start his search for Bucky. Since becoming the Winter Soldier, Bucky had become very elusive and very good at covering his tracks, finding him would prove to be difficult.

It had been four months since Steve had been pulled half dead out of the Potomac by his old friend. Steve was putting on a good face, acting strong and tough but everything that had happened with Bucky had really hit him hard. Finding out that the guy that's trying to kill you is actually you're old best friend that you had thought was dead, wasn't all that easy to take. But Bucky had saved him, Steve was certain of it. He hadn't seen it was his eyes nor had anyone else, but someone had dragged him out of the water and pulled him to shore and Steve was going to believe it was Bucky, because if it was Bucky, then that meant there was still hope.

Steve let out a small yawn as he took a step forward, but was immeadiately struck with a wave of dizziness. Only then did he notice it. His body felt...different, his movements felt less steady and and he felt almost sick in a way. He hadn't felt like this since before being given the Super-Soldier Serum. Steve glanced down at his body and was shocked to see the sweats he had worn to bed hanging loosely off of his hips, about to fall down to his ankles.

Steve grabbed hold of the waistband of the pants and held them up as he stumbled into the cramped bathroom of his hotel room and up to the small mirror hanging over the sink. A person Steve had never thought he would see again stared back at him. A scrawny, short, weak looking Steve Rogers looked at him, wearing the same expression of shock that Steve felt on his face.

How could this be possible? The Super-Soldier Serum didn't just wear off, especially not after all these years. But the proof was right in front of him, all 95 lbs.

Steve lifted an arm and held it up in front of his eyes, examining the bony wrist and narrow fingers as if they were foreign. But they weren't, none of this was. This was not a new Steve he was looking at, this was an old one, the original in fact. And yet it seemed so strange, after all that had happened and all that he'd survived to be back in this weak body that could hardly take a punch.

"This is impossible." Steve breathed as he stared at his reflection.

Steve was suddenly pulled out of his stunned haze by the sound of a cell phone vibrating on the beside table. He had been given the phone specifically for contacting SHIELD so it had to be Nick Fury or one of the other agents calling. Were it anyone else Steve would have ignored it at a time like this, but Steve realized that this was exactly the kind of problem that needed to be taken to SHIELD. Steve didn't really know of anyone else to go to, at least not anyone else he was comfortable going to, he wasn't even entirely comfortable with going to SHIELD.

Steve tripped out of the bathroom, holding in a curse as he jammed his foot into one of the bed's legs before hurrying over to the buzzing phone and picking it up.

"Rogers, sorry to call on such short notice but we need you in here." Nick Fury's voice said the moment Steve put the phone to his ear.

"Fury, I-uh-something's happened. I-I don't know-" Steve started but was quickly interrupted.

"Whatever it is, it's going to have to wait. I'm calling a meeting right away." Fury told him impatiently.

"Meeting, what kind of meeting?" Steve asked, unsure of exactly what sort of meeting would get Fury this harried.

"Just be here in an hour, there's a flight leaving in 20 minutes that I'll reserve a seat for you on." Fury told him.

"Wait, I-" But the sound of a long beep signalled that Fury had hung up on the other line.

As if Steve didn't have enough to worry about with suddenly shrinking down to the size of his old self, now Fury was all worked up about something and when Fury was worked up about something it never meant good things. Steve figured he didn't really have any choice but to go, if this meeting was really that important then he needed to go, whether he was 5'4 or 6'2. Fury would just have to find out what Steve had been trying to tell him by seeing it with his own one eye.


	2. Chapter 2

After it had been discovered that SHIELD has been infected by HYDRA, Fury and the few agents that hadn't been corrupted had had to move to a new base of operations. Though Fury's secret headquarters hidden under a seemingly abandonded warehouse wasn't nearly as big or high tech as the triskelion, it was still pretty impressive. Fury had had this secret little base made as an emergency hideaway that he only new about ten years ago and it now served as the main SHIELD base.

Steve stepped into the new SHIELD headquarters, feeling uncomfortable and awkward in his new old body. Steve had been so used to the enhanced super soldier body, he hadn't felt this small since before he became Captain America.

He had had to go to the store before boarding the flight Fury had told him about in order to purchase some clothes that actually fit him. All of his old clothes were far too big for him now.

Though he knew it was superficial, Steve couldn't help but feel embarassed walking through SHIELD, past all of the agents he had once been taller than. He could feel their eyes on him, and knew that they were wondering who he was and how he had gotten an access card into such a secure location. Though his face would be similar, no one in this time had seen him before the serum and the chances were that no one would recognize him right away.

Steve had been about to turn down the hall that would lead to Fury's office when suddenly Maria Hill was standing in front of him, looking down at him with her hands placed on her hips.

"Excuse me, but are you authorized to be here?" She asked suspiciously.

He had been right about people not recognizing him. He really couldn't blame Maria too much, no one was really expecting to see Captain America looking so short and skinny.

"It's-uh...I'm Steve Rogers." Steve said unhappily.

"That isn't funny. Who are you?" Hill demanded.

Steve honestly didn't know how to explain this, he didn't even understand what was going on so how was he going to convince Maria that he really was who he claimed to be?

"Hill, I'm telling the truth." Steve said, trying to sound convincing.

Though it looked pretty ridiculous strapped on his small back, Steve had brought his shield with him. The shield was a part of him, whether he was Captain America sized or not. Steve had also been hoping it would prove to any doubters that he was the real Steve Rogers, but apparently not.

"Why are you carrying around a fake Captain America shield?" Maria asked with a raised brow, completely ignoring Steve's claim of honesty.

"Maria, look at me. It's really me, something weird is going on."

Though recently they had worked together to bring HYDRA down, Steve didn't know Maria Hill incredibly well. But apparently the use of her first name was enough to get her to look right into Steve's face.

There was a surprised intake of breath from Maria that let Steve know that she had finally recognized him. The cold scowl that had been on her face melted away into a look of disbelief.

"Steve? But how-"

"I don't know, but I need to talk to Fury." Steve told her.

"Fury, he called you in for a meeting. You need to get in there." Hill remembered.

"I'll take you there, make sure no one else stops you." Maria said, sounding a bit embarassed at having had acted so harshly toward Captain America.

Steve followed Maria through the labyrinth like building, trying to ignore the stares and questioning looks. Finally they reached a set of sliding steel doors that, like pretty much all of the doors in the base, required an access card with the proper security level to enter.

"I think they've already started. Do you want me to go in with you to...explain things?" Hill asked.

Steve shook his head, "No I'll take care of it. Thank you."

Maria gave a nod and a look that seemed to say 'good luck' before turning and walking off.

Steve let out a long sigh, he was not looking forward to explaining this whole predicament to Fury and whatever other agents he had in that meeting with him. But it was probably necessary if he ever wanted this to get fixed.

Steve pulled his access card out of his back pocket and held it over the identification scanner until a little green light flashed signifying that it had accepted the card. Steve slipped the card back into his pocket as the steel doors began to slide open, revealing a scene that made Steve's eyes go wide and his heart fill with dread.


	3. Chapter 3

Steve had never considered himself a petty man, and he wasn't, he generally didn't worry himself over what other people might think of him. But the sight of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton staring at him made him want to turn around and leave.

Steve hated how embarassed he felt, but he couldn't help it. It was a similar situation as not wanting your co-workers to see you dressed in a ridiculous clown suit or something, the Avengers were essentially Steve's peers. It was really Tony Stark's ineviteable ridicule that Steve was worried about, the others like Natasha, who Steve had grown somewhat close to, didn't bother him as much. Though they had made their amends after the battle of New York, Steve still wasn't a big fan of Tony Stark. Tony just had a way of rubbing Steve the wrong way and having him see him like this was very unwelcome.

What were four of the Avengers even doing here in the first place? The Avengers weren't meant to be called together unless there was something seriously dangerous going on. If there was something seriously dangerous going on, then it couldn't have happened at a worse time. And if the Avengers were being assembled then where was Thor? Was there even a way to contact him when he was on Asgard?

Steve didn't really like being the center of attention, that was why being Captain America and being all over newspapers and posters back in the 40's had been kind of weird for him. Steve knew how to operate in the spotlight, but only barely. So seeing five pairs of eyes trained on him, obviously judging him, made Steve more than a little uncomfortable.

"Uh, who's the kid?" Tony asked, giving Steve a quizzical look, clearly not recognizing him yet.

Steve let out an annoyed sigh. He was well aware that he was short, but he didn't think that he looked like a kid.

Nicky Fury stood up from his seat, wearing a look of disbelief on his face as he looked at Steve. Fury at least had seemed to realize who Steve really was right away.

"How did this happen?" Fury asked, recovering from the inital shock and quickly composing his face into a serious look.

"Fury, what are you talking about, who is this?" Clint asked, glancing from Fury to Steve in confusion.

"That's the problem, I don't know." Steve said, keeping his eyes on Fury.

At the sound of his voice both Natasha and Bruce seemed to finally figure it out, both faces shifted into a look of shock and Natasha let out a slight gasp.

"Oh my God." Natasha murmured.

"Is there something I'm missing?" Tony asked, sounding a bit frustrated at the fact that no one would let him in on what was going on.

"Tony, it's Steve, Captain America." Bruce told Tony.

At this both Tony and Clint squinted their eyes at Steve as if scrutinizing him for any signs of the Captain America they had known, after a moment both of them seemed to suddenly see it and they too took on expressions of surprise.

"Whoa." Clint breathed.

Steve felt incredibly awkward just standing there in the doorway so he stepped into the conference room and took a seat in the remaining empty chair at the large conference table, the eyes of everyone in the room following him as he did.

"You have no idea how this could have happened?" Fury asked him.

"No, I-I just woke up this morning like this." Steve told the director of SHIELD grimly.

Bruce spoke up, "The serum couldn't have just worn off, it's not possible." He said with a brow creased in thought.

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on a second. So this is the size you were before the whole super soldier thing?" Tony asked, a grin beginning to form on his face.

Steve threw a dirty look towards Tony before turning to look at Bruce. "You studied Erskine's serum didn't you? Do you have any idea what could have happened?" He asked.

"Yes I did but I don't know, I could look into it but-"

"How tall are you? Can't be more than 5 feet." Tony interrupted, a full grin spread across his face now.

"I mean I knew you were small back in the day but man, you're probably the scrawniest person in the United States." Tony laughed.

Clint had a small smile on his face, but otherwise the other Avengers looked much less amused than Tony, as Steve had predicted. Natasha wore a look of concern, Fury was clearly all bussiness and Bruce looked perplexed.

"Quiet Stark." Fury ordered, giving Tony a cold look.

"Oh come on Nick, don't tell me you don't find this funny. The irony is too sweet." Tony said, smirking across the table at Steve.

"Get over it Stark." Steve said darkly.

"I could probably knock you down in one punch even without my armor." Tony mused, clearly he was enjoying this.

Natasha looked about ready to say something, but before she could Fury spoke up. "We don't have time for this right now. I didn't call you all here to bicker, though you always seem to do it."

"Why did you call us here?" Clint asked, apparently Steve wasn't the only one who didn't know what the hell was going on.

"Because of this." Fury said and with a press of a button on a remote, a holographic screen suddenly showed up in the center of the table. The screen displayed a zoomed in satellite image of a forest in what looked like Russia. Pretty much all that was visible was tree tops.

"What is it?" Natasha asked, eyebrows drawn together as she examined the image.

"This," Fury pressed another button on the remote, "Is a cosmic energy signature." The image on the screen altered, now showing a dark blue splotch in the center.

"Cosmic energy? Cosmic as in, what exactly?" Clint asked.

"Cosmic as in the Tesseract." Bruce said suddenly.

"I thought Thor took that thing." Steve said, unable to hide the concern in his voice. The Tesseract was bad news, it had caused him many problems during his long life.

"He did, or we thought he did." Fury said.

"This isn't the Tesseract, the energy signature isn't right. No, this looks like Loki's staff." Bruce stated as he picked his glassess up off of the table and slid them on.

"Does SHIELD still have the data files from the scans we did on that thing?" Tony asked, switching from Steve insult mode to science mode.

"A lot of our files were lost when we leaked HYDRA's secrets onto the internet, we've been able to secure some of it, but most of the data we had on the Tesseract and Loki's scepter was lost." Fury told them.

"How did you lose it? It's a computer file not your car keys. Did you back anything up?" Tony asked in a way that sounded kind of accusatory.

"SHIELD's files were HYDRA's files Stark, there was only so much we could save." Fury retorted, he didn't seem to care much for Tony's tone.

"I thought SHIELD was in possession of the staff?" Bruce asked, taking his eyes away from the screen to look at Fury.

"That's why you're here. We have reason to believe that HYDRA grabbed it on their way out. This image is the closest we can get, but I'd bet there's a HYDRA base underground there." Fury told them seriously.

"I thought HYDRA was supposed to be done." Tony pointed out.

"HYDRA was living inside SHIELD for several decades, they're not that easy to take out." Natasha said, glancing over at Steve who gave a single nod of agreement.

"So what do you want us to do?" Clint asked Fury.

"That scepter is dangerous, some of us know that from personal experience." Fury glanced over at Clint who wore a dark and somewhat haunted look before continuing. "HYDRA probably knows that SHIELD has access to the image, they may be expecting us so I'm sending in people with experience with the thing. This is too dangerous to take risks on, I want the Avengers on this."

Steve really didn't have any doubts that HYDRA was still out there, he never had. After finding out that they had survived all these years within SHIELD, Steve wasn't sure he'd ever believe they were done for.

"Wait, that staff was Loki's, so shouldn't Thor be taking care of it?" Clint asked, voicing Steve's thoughts.

"We have no way to contact Thor. We're on our own for now." Fury told them.

"So you basically want us to bust into this secret HYDRA base, grab the scepter and get out?" Tony asked.

"I'm sending a SHIELD spy I have in Russia to investigate the area, get as close as she can, but after that I want you to do more than get the scepter. Now that we know where this HYDRA base is, I need you to flush it out." Fury announced.

"So you want us to-" Steve started but was interrupted by Fury.

"I don't want you to do anything Rogers, you need to be tested."

"What-"

"Dr. Banner, you know the most about Erskine's serum, would you be willing to run some tests, try to figure out what's going on?" Fury asked Bruce, ignoring and interrupting Steve once again.

"Yes of course." Bruce said.

"Are you expecting me to stay here?" Steve asked, not very much liking where this was going.

"Actually I'd like all of you to stay here until I hear back from my agent in Russia. This mission isn't as simple as punching every alien you see in the face like last time, HYDRA is complex and tactical so I need you to figure out a plan, you can't just go in guns blazing." Fury told them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're asking all of us to stay in your makeshift HQ? Do you even have beds in here?" Tony asked rather rudely.

"A large part of SHIELD's agents stay here 24/7 now. We've had to make do but I'll be able to get a room for each of you." Fury answered, ignoring Tony's less than polite tone but it was clear he had noticed it.

What was worse than having the snarky Tony Stark see him at his weakest? Living with the snarky Tony Stark when he was at his weakest. This was the worst series of events Steve could have imagined.


	4. Chapter 4

Steve hated the fact that getting his blood drawn was considerably painful now, whereas before with his well muscled arms, he had barely felt the sharp needle slide into his skin. But now he was skin and bones and the spot in his shoulder where the needle had been inserted would be aching the next day.

"I'll start running tests, but it may take a while to find out if there's anything worth finding, the Super-Soldier Serum can be...difficult to work with." Bruce said as he slowly pulled the needle out of Steve's skin then capped it.

Steve sat atop a metal examination table in a small room in the SHIELD base's medical center, shirtless and ribs protruding. Bruce Banner was dressed professionally in a white lab coat, his glasses perched atop his nose. It was very difficult to imagine him as a man who could transform into a violent green creature of rage when he was dressed as such.

Steve had already had a lumbar puncture and plasma drawn, he hoped this blood sample would be the last fluid Bruce would need from him, he felt as if he had had enough needles in him for one day.

"Until I finish with the tests, I would recommend you try to get some rest, overexertion probably isn't wise at this point in time." Bruce advised as he laid the syringe full of Steve's blood on a metal tray along with the plasma and cerebrospinal fluid samples.

"While everyone else plans for the attack on HYDRA?" Steve asked a bit bitterly as he jumped down off of the examination table. Now on equal ground with the scientist, Steve couldn't help noticing that he was now shorter than Bruce, who could be considered shorter than average.

"Steve, I understand you not wanting to sit this out, but the chances of finding out and correcting whatever caused the reversion a in few days are unlikely." Bruce told him, pulling off plastic gloves and tossing them in the trash.

Steve let out a long sigh, he knew Bruce was right but the idea of sitting out something important enough to call in the Avengers was very frustrating to the super soldier.

Bruce let out a small sigh, "We're meeting in the conference room at 5:00 tonight to start planning out an attack strategy, I think it would be fine with Fury if you came, if of course you want to come." Bruce told him. "We could probably benefit from your military experience and you know HYDRA better than anyone." Bruce said, pulling his glasses off and slipping them into the upper pocket of his lab coat.

"But Steve, you really should consider resting. This reversion may be related to some kind of disease, if you spend yourself, you might just make it worse." Bruce warned.

Steve ran a hand over his face, a small gesture but something very non-Captain America. It was a sign of exhaustion, something the super soldier Steve didn't often feel and even when he did, was very unlikely to show it. Bruce was right, Steve did need to rest, no matter how restless he felt.

Steve nodded in understanding. "I'll take it easy. Thank you Dr. Banner."

"No problem Steve. I'll let you know if and when I find anything." Bruce promised.

Steve grabbed the plain white shirt he had bought earlier and pulled it back on before exiting the medical center. He had about four hours until everyone was meeting in the conference room, he figured he could fit in some rest and attend the meeting as well. If Steve wouldn't actually be able to go on the mission then at least he could help the others plan for it, it might help him feel a little less useless.

Steve headed for the room that Agent Hill had shown him after the meeting with Fury had been disbanded. The room wasn't originally meant to serve as living quarters, Steve guessed it had actually been a small supply closet of some sort previously. Fury's base had never been meant to serve as a full SHIELD headquarters, so a lot of things had had to be rearranged. The room was very basic with only a bed and a dresser within.

Once he reached the door to what would be his living quarters for the foreseeable future, he once again waved his access card over a scanner. The door slid away and Steve stepped into the windowless room. He would have been grateful for the privacy but Steve was almost certain the room was bugged. Fury had done it to his apartment back in DC and he would likely do it again. At this point Steve was too caught up with everything else that was going on to be too upset. Once things were back to normal, or as normal as things could be for a man who had been frozen in ice for 70 years, Steve would approach Fury about his ongoing lack of trust and invasion of privacy.

Though Steve had his doubts that he would actually be able to sleep with his mind so full of worries and stress, he would attempt to get at least a little bit of sleep as Bruce had advised. Seeing as the clothes he currently wore were the only ones he had that fit him, he would have to sleep in them. Eventually he'd need to get more, but for now he would try to get the rest that Bruce had urged him to get.

Steve slipped under the crisp white sheets of the bed that might have been almost too small for him were he still super soldier sized. He forced his eyes shut as his head fell back against the firm pillow and was surprised by how tired he suddenly felt. Only now that he lay in bed with his head against a pillow and his body beneath sheets did he realize how spent he felt. Steve had known he was tired, but he had forgotten just how easily emotionally intense situations could affect his energy levels. The Super Soldier Serum had prevented that before, his body could have gone much longer than the average human without sleep. But now, back in his small body that instead of tiring less easily, tired more easily, he felt almost eager to slip into the darkness of sleep.

Within a few short minutes, Steve's breathing deepened and his body relaxed as he drifted into a dream riddled sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Dean Dawkins was prone to fits of anger, generally caused by getting in trouble with a school teacher or his parents, so Dean would take out this anger on the scrawny Steve Rogers. There was no one better for Dean to use as a personal punching bag, he didn't want to fight someone who wouldn't fight back, but he also didn't want to fight someone who was actually going to pose a threat so little Stevie Rogers was perfect.

"Come on Rogers, stand up and fight like a man." Dean Dawkins taunted, standing over Steve with a sneer on his pudgy face.

Steve was laid out on the hard ground behind the school, blood already dripping into the grass from a well placed punch to the nose. Dean had cornered Steve on his way out of school, unbeknown to the teacher unfortunately for Steve. Dean had chosen a prime day to start a fight with Steve, Bucky was home sick with the stomach flu and wouldn't be coming to Steve's rescue today.

Steve held back a grunt of pain, his nose ached something awful and Steve wondered if it was broken. Steve tried to stem the flow of blood with the back of his hand but it really only resulted in getting his hand stained with blood.

"Maybe this will teach you not to back talk to me." Dean spat venomously.

Steve knew that Dean was only picking a fight with him because he wanted to vent his anger, but to justify his actions, Dean was using an altercation that had happened a week ago as an excuse. When Dean had been starting a fight with another kid who had apparently looked at him the wrong way, Steve had told Dean to leave him alone. This had incured Dean's wrath and had the teacher not shown up, a fight would have broken out.

Steve wanted to get back to his feet and stand his ground, no matter how much of an advantage this brown haired bully had over him, Steve wasn't just going to lie down and take it. But before Steve could even move to get up, a foot came flying fast towards his face. Steve waited for the pain to come, but just as the foot was about to hit its target, everything went to black.

Steve let out a small gasp as his eyes flew open and the dream faded away. He sat up in the foreign bed, trying to remember where he was and what was happening. For a brief moment he couldn't even recall what year it was, 1930, 1945, 2012, 2014, everything seemed confused in his head. He felt as if it was 2014, but if it was, then why was he in this small body? Then after a moment's more of thought, the events of the day came rushing back and he remembered where and when he was. It was 2014 and earlier that day he had woken up to find himself a size that he hadn't been since the 40's. He was now in the SHIELD base along with four of the other Avengers.

Steve let out a long sigh and ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair, the tired feeling of waking up from a nap washing over him. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and saw that the time was 4:47. So he'd had a pretty long nap, and Bruce had been right to advise it, he did feel fairly better, despite a lingering letharic feeling.

Steve tugged the bed sheets off of his body, pushed himself off of the bed and got to his feet. Bruce had said that the Avengers would be meeting at 5:00 so Steve figured he'd start heading down to the conference room now, it wasn't as if he had anything else to do. Steve grabbed his shield that was resting by the dresser where he had left it before going down to the medical center. Though there was no reason he should need it and even if he did, he didn't even know if he would be able to properly use it without all of his previous strength, Steve liked to have it with him as often as possible.

It took a little longer than it should have for Steve to get to the conference room, he was still unfamiliar with the new SHIELD base. Though this base was considerably smaller than the Triskelion had been, it was still pretty big for an underground place that had been unknown to anyone but Nick Fury until very recently.

By the time Steve managed to find his way to the conference room it was almost exactly 5:00 and all of the other Avengers were sitting around the large conference table except for Tony. Steve was sure Tony was trying to be fashionably late or something idiotic like that. Steve honestly wasn't sure if he would be able to put up with Tony Stark's attitude, not with everything that was going on.

Steve could feel the wondering eyes of the other Avengers as he stepped into the room and took a seat. It was still surreal to them, seeing Captain America so skinny and small.

"Any luck?" Steve asked Bruce, who had abandonded the white lab coat and had his glasses tucked away in the pocket of his blue button up shirt.

Bruce shook his head, "Nothing yet, I have the computer running an analysis over the blood sample right now, it should be done in about a half hour." Bruce told him.

Steve nodded in understanding, he had never expected it to be that easy. He wasn't an expert on science, but he knew that the Super Soldier Serum was difficult to work with. Dr. Erskine had been a genius to be able to create such a complex formula, and he was the only one who could understand it. Unfortunately he was long dead, the secrets of the serum gone with him.

"I say if Stark isn't here in the next minute, we start without him." Clint proposed, twirling an arrow between his fingers that Steve could only hope wasn't explosive.

"No need to get your feathers in a twist." Tony Stark said as he stepped into the room, the usual smirk on his lips.

"The next time you want to be late, don't be." Natasha said, arms crossed over her chest.

"Three minutes guys, calm down." Tony said as he took a seat next to Bruce who wore a slightly amused expression.

Tony glanced over at Steve and a surprised expression temporarily interrupted the arrogant grin. "Oh yeah, forgot you were tiny now." He said, his expression returning to its usual.

Steve just glared at him coldly for a moment before pulling his gaze away. He wasn't going to give Tony the satisfaction of getting angry, he knew that was what he wanted, or at least it felt that way to Steve.

"Wait a second, I thought spangles wasn't supposed to be a part of this because he's the size of a 7th grader." Tony said.

"Captain Rogers has more experience with HYDRA than all of us combined, not to mention military training. If we're coming up with a strategy, he should be involved." Natasha told Tony smoothly, her dangerous green eyes glaring at him as if daring him to argue with her.

"I'm still not down with this whole 'plan' thing by the way, it's not really my style." Tony said, putting air quotes around the word 'plan'.

This was one of the reason Steve and Tony just didn't get along. Steve found it difficult to respect a man who made no effort to use strategy or make plans and instead insisted on improvising.

"You heard Fury, HYDRA always has a plan, if we don't have one then we'll have no chance." Natasha said.

"Speaking of Fury, where is he? Isn't he the one that called us in in the first place?" Tony pointed out.

"Said he's busy and that we should be able to figure it our ourselves." Clint said, still twirling the arrow.

"Basically, he's too lazy to help us." Tony said.

"Okay, enough of this. Stark, keep your mouth shut unless you have something actually helpful to say. Clint, stop playing with that arrow before I break it in half." Natasha said, shooting Clint a warning look.

Clint grumbled something under his breath about Natasha being bossy as he slid the arrow back into the quiver that he had hung on the back of his chair. Tony quietly said something about Clint being whipped and Natasha threw Tony a look that seemed to threaten death. Bruce was just leaning his head on his hand tiredly, watching the whole scene in front of him.

Steve let out a long sigh. He was starting to regret coming to this meeting.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry I haven't posted an update in a little while, I was pretty busy with Christmas and all so I took a little break from writing. I'll try not to take such extended breaks in the future, but if I do, don't give up on me. Anyway thanks for reading!**

"Alright, enough." Steve said, not loudly but sternly, an authority in his voice that didn't match his small stature.

Suddenly all eyes turned towards him and all talking ceased. It seemed no matter how tall he was, Steve could still pull off the assertive voice of a leader that could call even the most unruly troops to attention.

"This can't be like last time, we can't waste time bickering." Steve told the other Avengers, arms crossed over his small chest.

"It's funny, I seem to remember you being a large part of that." Tony said, feigning a look of focused thinking.

"I never said that I wasn't, but-" Steve started, trying to keep himself cool and unaffected by Tony's brash attitude.

"But Captain America could never do anything wrong, any mistakes he might make are clearly morally justified, right?" Tony said, a harshness to his tone.

"We're not doing this right now Tony, whatever issues you might have with me need to be put behind us." Steve told him.

"Steve is right Tony, we aren't doing this again." Natasha said, glaring sharply across the table at Tony.

"Steve? What happened to Captain Rogers? Since when are you two so friendly? Oh right I remember, that mission in DC. I see how it is now." Tony said unkindly.

Natasha looked incredulous, "What does that even matter? If it was even remotely like that, which it isn't by the way, why would you care?"

"Is this seriously what it was like last time?" Steve heard Clint ask Bruce, to which Bruce responded with a grave nod. "I'm starting to think I didn't miss out after all." Clint said, shaking his head.

"It matters because you two having a relationship could compromise this whole mission." Tony said as if it was an indisputable fact.

"Oh don't even pretend you actually care about that." Natasha said icily.

This was just like last time, things were escalating fast and they were only going to get worse. Last time, it had taken Coulson's death to convince them all to work as a team, Steve doubted they would be able to pull themselves together without something like that.

"Stark, we are not doing this." Steve said severely.

Tony turned his harsh glare over to Steve. "Maybe you shouldn't be talking, you're not even supposed to be here little guy."

Steve found himself getting to his feet, the humiliation of standing among heroes at such a size mixed with anger and caused him to lose all calmness. There was no one who pissed Steve Rogers off more than Tony Stark.

"Back off." Steve growled.

Tony let out a cold laugh as he too got to his feet. "I'd like to see you make me."

"Is this seriously happening again?" Bruce asked in exasperation.

"How the hell did we manage to save the world?" Clint asked no one in particular.

"I've dealt with people like you hundreds of times. Go ahead, hit me. It'll make you exactly like every one of them." Steve taunted, ignoring Bruce and Clint.

"Guys no, stop." Natasha demanded, getting to her her feet as well.

"I would really love to, but pick on someone your own size and all of that." Tony said, as if explaining something unfortunate.

Steve's blood was boiling at this point, he desperately wished he could stand over Tony and look down at him threateningly as he had before. But small Steve was about as formidable as a house cat, and no matter how he hated to admit it, Tony was right, even without his armor Tony could likely take Steve out.

"Back down." Natasha ordered the two men.

Tony showed no sign of wanting to do this and Steve, despite his size disadvantage, wasn't going to back down from a fight. It seemed as if nothing would stop this face off, it had taken an explosion to stop the two heroes from going at each other the last time. But then suddenly the metal doors slid open and in stepped a very angry looking Nick Fury.

**A/N: Sorry this is a little short but I wanted to get something up today. Also, if I'm making Tony out to be a bit of a bad guy it's not because I don't like him, it's because it's how I think he would react in the situation. But if you think the characters are becoming a little OC then please tell me, because I want them to be as accurate to their movie versions as possible.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Sorry for all of these annoying author's notes but I just wanted to let you know that I made a book trailer for this story. I made it for fun, I really like being creative with computer programs and also sifting through a bunch of Marvel movie scenes is definitely a plus. I'm not sure how good it is, it's difficult to get the scenes I need because obviously the events of my story haven't happened in the movie-verse but I figured it'd be a fun little thing to try. So if you're interested, the url to the video is in my profile, unfortunately it doesn't want to show up here. And of course it's not required that you look at it, like I said it was just for fun really. Anyways, let's just get back to the story.**

"Sit your asses down." Fury commanded harshly as he took his place at the head of the table, but instead of taking a seat, he shoved the chair out of the way and stood with his hands on the table.

Steve, Natasha and even Tony followed this order, though he made a show of it with an exaggerated sigh.

Fury glowered across the table at the five Avengers. Nick Fury was constantly an intimidating man, even to superheroes (whether or not they would admit it), but standing there with his one eye narrowed and a scowl on his face, he was particularly threatening.

Suddenly all of the previous anger drained out of Steve, leaving him feeling tired and ashamed of himself. He had allowed himself to get out of hand, to get into yet another argument with Tony Stark. Instead of ignoring Tony, Steve had given in to the taunting, wasting time that should have been spent planning for their attack on HYDRA.

"I give you a job, I ask you to make a plan and I trust that five grown adults can handle it. Then I have to hear from an agent that there's yelling coming out of the conference room. I show up and find you all bickering like goddamn children." Fury said with disgust, his expression showing this feeling.

"To be fair, I wouldn't consider Rogers a 'grown adult'." Tony said with a tilt of the head and a shrug.

Five minutes earlier this might have enraged Steve, but now he just shook his head and waited for Fury's anger to come crashing around Tony.

"I could have you decommissioned." Fury growled, turning his attention to Tony.

Tony didn't look the least bit intimidated, whether or not that was an act, Steve couldn't tell. But Steve knew Tony would never allow himself to look weak, and in order to do that Tony would be as blatantly arrogant as possible.

"Well I'm sure I could find work elsewhere." Tony answered.

"I am the only thing preventing the Department of Defense from ripping the Iron Man armor out of your hands Stark. If it weren't for me, Iron Man would belong to the U.S. government." Fury told Tony fiercely. "Were I to give the say so, you would never see a piece of Iron Man armor again."

Tony looked briefly surprised by this, but quickly replaced this look with a smirk. "That wouldn't be too wise on your part Nicky, the world needs me."

Fury shook his head, "The world needs Iron Man, not you. Rhodes is proof that the armor can work just fine with someone else inside of it." He said severely.

Tony for once didn't seem to know how to respond, though he didn't look as if he had been thrown off balance, he only scowled across the table at Fury.

Fury turned his attention to all of the Avengers. "I called in the Avengers because I need professionals, I need people that can work together and get things done. I need to know if you can handle this, otherwise I'll have to find someone else." He said seriously.

Steve shared glances with the other Avengers, though he avoided Tony's eyes because though he had cooled down, Steve still hated him. Natasha gave him a slow and meaningful nod, Bruce wore a look of uncertainty and Clint offered a very small and barely noticeable shrug as if saying 'why not give it a shot'. This would have to be like last time, they would have to pull themselves together, this time without Coulson's death to spur them into action.

At this point Steve almost forgot he wasn't a super soldier, he felt ready to grab his shield and charge into HYDRA's base. Then he remembered that that wouldn't be possible, he wouldn't be storming a HYDRA base like the good old days. Steve would be hanging back, resting and waiting for the blood, plasma and cerebrospinal fluid test results while the other Avengers took on HYDRA. A wave of disappointment rolled over Steve, he would be stuck in the SHIELD base until Bruce figured out what was wrong with him and how to fix it.

"If you aren't ready by the time my agent in Russia reports back, then the Avengers are out." Fury announced.

Steve wondered who Fury would go to if not the Avengers. Likely he would just have to send a team of agents in.

Fury took his hands off of the table and straightened up. He gave Tony one last threatening look before walking out of the room, leaving the five heroes alone together once again.

The all sat in an awkward silence for several uncomfortable moments before Bruce, who had remained mostly silent the whole time finally spoke up. "So...that was-uh...fun..." He trailed off.

Natasha shook her head. "Fury's right, we have to get it together." She said seriously.

Steve nodded in agreement. Even if he wouldn't actually be able to be a part of the fight against HYDRA, if he was going to help them come up with a plan he couldn't be getting into arguments with Tony.

"Can we all just forget about all the reasons we hate each other for a couple of days?" Clint asked with a quirked brow.

"Might be difficult..." Tony said.

"Tony." Natasha said warningly.

"Well I won't make any promises." Tony responded, which Natasha seemed to figure would be the best response she would get out of Tony Stark.

"Well then", Clint said as he clapped his hands together, "Let's make a plan."


	8. Chapter 8

The image that Fury had displayed on the holographic screen earlier once again hovered over the tabletop, still as non-revealing as before.

"We have to go in quiet, we make too much noise, they'll sound the alarm and it'll be almost impossible to get to the scepter." Natasha said, arms folded over her chest and brow furrowed in thought.

Before he had joined SHIELD, Steve hadn't done a whole lot of stealth. Except for his first time out as Captain America, when he had gone in to that HYDRA base alone. Other than that, most of his time spent fighting in the war had been pretty straightforward, they were soldiers, not spies after all. However, after joining SHIELD Steve had been given some stealth training and done a couple of mission in which he had had to use such training. Under no circumstances was he an expert in stealth like Black Widow, but he could handle himself in a situation that required it.

"And this is the best look we've got?" Bruce asked, gesturing to the image on the screen.

"Unfortunately yes. The tree cover makes it impossible to get a good look at the ground, though I doubt it would be much help even if we could. The energy signature is fairly faint, meaning it and the HYDRA base must be underground. According to Fury, SHIELD has searched all over the internet for pictures of this area, but it would seem that none exist." Natasha answered.

"What about Fury's spy in Russia, she gonna send us pics?" Tony asked.

"She's been sent to scope out the area around the base, but we don't expect her to be able to get very close, HYDRA will have some way of keeping people out." Natasha told him.

"So basically what you're saying is we're going to be going into this blind." Tony said with an eye roll.

"We won't be completely blind. Fury wants us to flush out the base, but our main goal is to get the scepter. The energy signature from the scepter will lead us to it, after it's secured we can break stealth and tear the base apart from the inside out." Natasha explained.

Apparently Natasha would be taking over Steve's spot as the team leader during this mission, seeing as Steve couldn't even go on the mission. Steve tried not to be too broken up about, it wasn't a big deal at all, but it did succeed in making him feel more useless.

"So I'm guessing going in I'm going to have to keep the...Other Guy...put away." Bruce said awkwardly.

Steve was a little surprised that Fury had called Bruce in for this, and not just for his scientific expertise. Steve felt Bruce, or rather the Hulk, had proven himself during the battle of New York. The Hulk had fought alongside the Avengers and helped save the world from the invasion, but Steve wasn't sure whether or not that meant Bruce had complete control over the Hulk. And Steve figured that if he was uncertain about it, Fury was definitely uncertain about it. But then again, Steve really didn't know Fury that well, no one knew Fury that well.

"I think keeping Bruce outside until the scepter is secure is the best plan of action." Steve put in.

Natasha nodded in agreement. "Once we have the scepter, we'll call you up and you can let out all of your...pent up anger on HYDRA." She said with a small grin at the end.

"And Stark," Natasha said, turning her attention to Tony,"Red and gold is a little too flashy, you're going to need something a bit more low key."

"Well I did blow up my old stealth suit, but I think I can whip up something that'll work." Tony said.

Steve had heard all about Tony blowing up all of his suits and getting his arc reactor removed after the whole AIM incident. Not only had it been all over the news, but SHIELD had been buzzing about it, people speculating about whether Tony had really given it all up. Apparently he hadn't, he'd only given some of it up.

"Unless any new revelations come in from the agent in Russia, we'll be taking a quinjet in as close as we can without being detected by HYDRA. From there we'll have to walk. No doubt there will be guards or some sort of security around the entrance to this underground base, we'll have to take it out quietly." Natasha told them.

"Define quietly." Tony said which Natasha ignored.

"All guns used when going in will have to have silencers, but attacks without guns are better."

"You know you're only talking to Tony right? I already know how to do this, Banner isn't doing the sneaking part and Rogers isn't even going." Clint pointed out.

Natasha gave Clint a sly look. "You have plenty to learn Clint." She said.

Clint opened his mouth to dispute this statement but Natasha was already moving on. "A lot of this is going to have to be improvisation since we really don't know what we're going up against, but if we keep quiet and nobody does anything stupid then we just might not die." She said with a grim smirk.

"Well great, we've got an absolutely fantastic plan, so can I go now?" Tony asked, looking bored of the whole situation.

Natasha gave Tony a cold look before saying in the perfectly polite voice of an assistant, "That will be all Mr. Stark."

Tony gave Natasha a look that seemed to say that he was not amused. Steve wasn't exactly sure what that was about, maybe Natasha and Tony had more of a history than Steve knew.

Steve got out of his seat to follow Tony, Bruce and Clint out the door but was stopped by a firm hand on his arm. Steve turned around to see Natasha gripping his arm, a serious look on her face.

"Steve-just be careful, okay?" She said to Steve's surprise.

"I'm not going on the mission, I'll be plenty safe here." Steve said, trying not to sound bitter.

"I know. Just don't do anything stupid." She told him.

Steve raised a questioning eyebrow and opened his mouth to ask what she meant but the super spy was gone before he could say a word, slipped out through the door and down the hall.


	9. Chapter 9

It was the next day and Steve had woken just an hour ago from a somewhat restless sleep. After waking up he had headed for the small cafeteria where he would be able to get breakfast. The cafeteria was fairly similar to a high school lunch room with its buffet line and circular tables with the stools attached to the table. However the food was considerably better, apparently SHIELD had some pretty high class cooks.

Steve had filled his plate with eggs, bacon, sausage and hash browns, and while normally he would have been able to clean the plate, now he felt as if he would hardly even be able to eat a quarter of it. There were a couple of other people in the room, all of which were sitting at a table together. Steve was getting odd looks from them, clearly they weren't high enough level clearance to have been directly notified of his current state. They probably just assumed he was some pathetic new recruit. So in order to avoid uncomfortable questions, Steve took a seat at an empty table and began to eat his breakfast alone.

As he had predicted, he hadn't even eaten a quarter of what was on his plate when he began to feel full. He was pushing the eggs around on his plate disinterestedly when Natasha and Clint sat down next to him.

"Not hungry?" Natasha asked as she set down her own plate of toast, eggs and fruit.

"I guess not." Steve said, abandoning the fork and setting it down next to his plate.

Clint took a long swig of orange juice out of bottle before giving him a quizzical look.

"You know, it might do you some good to eat up. Just saying." He said.

"I can't eat as much as I used to." Steve sighed, eyeing Clint's filled up plate that he would probably clean off, unlike Steve.

"It won't matter for long, we'll figure out what happened and reverse it." Natasha said without any hesitation, she sounded convinced that it were true.

Steve knew he should share Natasha's confidence, but ever since waking up as his skinny self he had felt much more unsure. He knew he was still the same man as he had been before, and yet he felt as though he lacked the confidence and certainty he had once had.

Just then he heard two simultaneous buzzing sounds. Both Natasha and Clint pulled phones out of their pockets. Natasha glanced over at Clint. "Fury wants us to meet him in the conference room." She said.

"Yeah I see that." Clint said as he looked at a message on his phone.

"Do you think the agent in Russia got some information? Clint asked, slipping the phone back into his pocket.

"I guess we'll find out." Natasha said.

Steve pulled his own phone out of his pocket. No messages.

"You can probably come-" Natasha began but Steve cut her off.

"No, it's fine. It's not my mission. Go see what Fury wants." He said, trying to sound as uncaring as possible.

Clint stuffed one last piece of bacon into his mouth before swinging his legs over the side of the seat and getting up.

"Better hurry if we don't want to get a lecture." He said through the mouthful of bacon.

Natasha gave Steve a long look before she too got up and left the cafeteria.

_There's nothing to be bitter about. Don't be immature. _Steve thought to himself.

_It's just not your mission._


End file.
